ESPN – New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera will announce Saturday that he will retire after the coming season, sources confirmed for ESPN.

Rivera will make his intentions known at a news conference at 10 a.m. ET in Tampa, Fla. He then will make his spring debut against the Atlanta Braves.

We all saw this coming, the Yankees are making cuts to the payroll by 2014 add this with Mo’s age and desire to spend more time with his family oh and the Yankee Core 4 (Posada, Pettetite, Jeter, and Mo) are dwindling.

Well, it looks like the announcement every Yankee fan has been dreading is finally coming Saturday. I’d be SHOCKED if he doesn’t get the Cal Ripken Jr. or Chipper Jones treatment where every ballpark he visits for the last time gives him a gift. Regardless if you hate or love the Yankees, Mariano Rivera is the greatest reliever of all-time and one of the most humble guys to play the game. You never heard anything about him other than his stats on the field. He played and still plays the game like the old boys did: Let winning do your talking.

We’ll revisit this later in the season but we tip our hat to Mariano. Hopefully he can go out with a bang and return to his old form for one last season.